Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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536. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the membership of the social housing clearing house group; the organisations that made submissions and presented their proposals for financing social housing to the group; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39312/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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Arising from opportunities offered by the Social Housing Strategy 2020, a wide variety of developers, investors, financiers, Approved Housing Bodies and others expressed an interest in being involved in the provision or financing of social housing across the country. A structured, formal process was put in place to facilitate engagement with these bodies. This was set out in the Clearing House Protocol published by me in March 2015, which comprises a structured form and guidance for submitting proposals.

A body called the Social Housing Investment Proposals Clearing House Group- or the Clearing House Group - was established to examine and consider proposals and to meet with the companies, groups and institutions involved. The Clearing House Group is a sub-group of the Finance Work Stream – one of the governance structures of the Social Housing Strategy 2020.

The Clearing House Group is chaired by a senior official from the National Asset Management Agency assigned to the work on a temporary basis at the request of my Department. The membership of the Group comprises officials from my Department, the Department of Finance, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, the Housing Agency, Dublin City Council and the National Economic and Social Council.

Since being established, the Clearing House Group has received 24 proposals for funding social and affordable housing, using both existing mechanisms and new approaches. These are from a broad spectrum of entities which include: financial institutions, developers, fund managers, financial services providers, Approved Housing Bodies and others. The Clearing Housing Group is currently in the process of concluding its work and will be bringing forward recommendations.

A list of the organisations that made submissions, and those that met with the Clearing House Group, is set out in the following table.